Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Shinguards Have It

We signed the girls up for soccer through the YMCA. We like to do one activity at a time. Swim lessons and camps will be over soon, and the girls really have liked dance and gymnastics, but we want to expose them to team sports, too. My friend J. makes the argument that soccer is better than baseball at this age, because even though baseball is a team sport, it still depends heavily on individual performance. That's my recollection of playing t-ball as a kid, for sure. Though I had a wicked swing, I believe.

Unfortunately, this soccer thing has the girls all wound up. Addie is very worried about looking foolish and about playing in the games--we are working hard to allay her fears, but every time we bring it up, she gets nervous again. "Mommy? I keep forgetting you can't use your hands!" She's having some serious performance anxiety about the whole thing. Maybe it was the five minutes she spent watching the World Cup with her Aunt Nanny. It scarred her for life.

Nolie, for her part, is not a big fan of running. She prefers to be carried everywhere. So she's not super-enthralled, therefore, with the idea of running up and down a field and kicking a ball in a game she doesn't care about or understand. Neither Eric and I have played much soccer, so it's hard for us to explain how much fun all of this is going to be. Maybe we're not totally convinced ourselves.

There is nothing, though, like spending a wad of cash on an activity for your kids, and buying all the required equipment and jerseys and blah-blah, and having them whine and complain about it.

Until now, that is! Because, it seems, all we needed to do was buy them some pink shinguards, and all would be well. It is going to be some trick to get these off of Nolie, who has been running around the house, enraptured, exclaiming, "Mama, everyone has to wear these. Everyone. You have to if you want to play soccer. Just try to kick me! See? Doesn't hurt!!!"

I'm not sure how to tell her she's going to have to wear shorts with them.